Safety-catch.



A. J. THURSTANS.

SAFETY CATCH. nrmoumn rum) AUG.24,-19(')8.

Patented Oct. 26, 1909.

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ARTHUR J. THURSTANS, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

SAFETY-CATCH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 26, 1909.

Application filed August 24, 1908. Serial No. 449,971.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR J. THURS- TANS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of NewJersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety-Catches; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact descrip: tion of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and to figures of referencemarked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to a safety-catch arranged to securely lock thefree end of a ivoted pin, which pin is secured on the black of the bodyportion of a piece of jewe ry.

The particular object of the invention is a snap that engages the pinand whose engaging portion moves in the same plane as the swing of thepin and can be moved by the closing of the pin so that the pin is simplymoved to its closed position, and the locking takes place automaticallywithout any manual manipulation. An advantage of this construction isthat'the pin does not have to be forced under a hook, and is thereforenot loosened at its pivot by the transverse strain which is the resultof a construction employing a transverse hook.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which-Figure 1 is a back view of a piece of jewe elry employing my invention.Fig. 2 is a side view of the same. Figs. 3 and 4t are central verticalsections of the pin catch.

The body portion 10 of the piece of jewelry is of any form and hasthereon the usual form of pivotal support 11 and a swinging pin 12,which pin is adapted to have its free end locked to the body portionwhen the pin is in place on clothing. I employ a pivot 13 on whichswings the latch 14; consisting of ears or wings 15 and the curvedguiding portion or shield 16 so that a pressure by the pin 12 will causethe latch to be forced back as in Fig. 1 so that the end of the pinenters the perforation 17 in the latch 14, which snaps back into placeas in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. The curved guiding portion of the latch ishollowed transversely of its curve so that the pin which strikes forminga notch 20 the latch first is forced into the center of the guidingportion and is held centered until the pin enters the perforation 17 inthe latch, by which time the pin is also engaged by the juncture of thefingers 19. When the pin is locked the latch projects beyond the end ofthe pin so that the pin is not caught by any parts of the clothing ofthe wearer, the projecting portion also serving as a finger-piece bywhich the latch is swung back to permit the pin to be released. suitablespring 18 bears on the body portion and on the latch so that the same 1sheld normally in its locked position, the movement of the latch in thedirection induced by the spring being limited by fingers 19 betweenthem. These fingers take up any transverse strain from the pin 12 andalso take it from the pivot 11 and the latch 14. A housing 21 ispreferably placed over the spring 18 and the pivot of the latch toprevent the catching of the clothing therein. The shield 16 acts to keepthe pin point from engaging parts of the clothing when the pin is in itslocked position.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is The combination of abody portion having a swinging pin thereon, with a latch adapted toswing on the body portion, the latch having an engaging portion that iscurved toward the pin and hollowed transversely of the movement of thepin whereby the pin is centered when it engages the latch, the latchhaving a perforation at the end of the curved portion, a spring forforcing the latch shut, and fingers for limiting the movement of thelatch toward the pin, the latch being adapted to project beyond the pinwhen the pin is locked,whereby the engagement of the point of the pinwith the clothing of the wearer is prevented, the engaging portion alsoacting as a fingeriece for the manual manipulation of the latch when thepin is released.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my handthis 23rd day of July 1908.

ARTHUR J. THUR STANS.

Witnesses:

E. A. PELL, M. JoHNsoN. p. p"; 1

